TEN YEARS FROM NOW - REVIEW OF ALEC ROSS'S "INDUSTRIES OF THE FUTURE"

In his book Industries of the Future: How the Next 10 Years of Innovation will Transform Our Lives at Work and Home (2016), innovation expert Alec Ross provides a future vision not just of the industries but of the entire digital age.

Ross takes a look at the industries which will dominate a decade from now - robotics, advanced life sciences, the "code-fication of money", cybersecurity and big data. He believes that all these data-driven industries will play a major role in the evolving Information Revolution.

SCIENCE AND BRAHMAN - REVIEW OF MANI BHAUMIK'S "CODE NAME GOD"

I am glad I read this book. Mani Bhaumik's Code Name God: The Spiritual Odyssey of a Man of Science (2005) has an astonishing central thesis: Modern day physics has aligned itself startlingly close to a position that is identified in the Vedas as Brahman - the One Source that created the universe and pervades all through it. Let me summarize his arguments.

THE FUTURE OF JOBS - REVIEW OF MARTIN FORD'S "THE RISE OF THE ROBOTS"

This is possibly the scariest non-fiction book I've ever read. Martin Ford's The Rise of the Robots: Technology and the Threat of Mass Unemployment (2015) won the FT-McKinsey & Company Business Book of the Year 2015 Award (until 2013 called the FT-Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award). It talks of how businesses are automating jobs right, left and centre causing unemployment in the millions.

SURVIVING THE FUTURE - REVIEW OF ROBERT T KIYOSAKI'S "SECOND CHANCE"

In Second Chance: For Your Money, Your Life and Our World (2015), Robert T Kiyosaki of Rich Dad, Poor Dad (1997) fame takes a look at how the world has changed after the 2008 crisis.

Kiyosaki reiterates what he has consistently stated in all of his other books: the rich do not work for money, they work to build assets that yield cash flows that endure whether they continue to work or not. In Rich Dad, Poor Dad , Kiyosaki had made some controversial claims: "Your house is not an asset" and "Savers are losers". These claims got validated when the housing market collapsed in the US in the Great Recession and the Fed responded by slashing interest rates to zero.

THE OTHER FACE OF WINSTON CHURCHILL - REVIEW OF MADHUSHREE MUKERJEE'S "CHURCHILL'S SECRET WAR"

Winston Churchill is hailed as one of the greatest statesmen of the last century. A fiery and inspiring orator and a vehement hater of Nazism, he lead his country to victory in World War II. While Churchill's disdain for India and Indians is well known, it will come as a shock to many that he was largely responsible for the death of close to three million Indians in the 1940s. This unknown side of Churchill and his colleagues is brilliantly brought out in journalist Madhushree Mukerjee's Churchill's Secret War (2010).

MAN WITH A MISSION - REVIEW OF ASHLEE VANCE'S "ELON MUSK"

Meet Elon Musk. The man behind SpaceX, Tesla Motors and SolarCity. SpaceX is a company that makes rockets and sends them into space. Tesla is a company that makes electric cars. And SolarCity makes solar cells.

I was flabbergasted by Elon Musk's audacity as portrayed in Ashlee Vance's Elon Musk: How the Billionaire CEO of SpaceX and Tesla is Shaping Our Future (2015). Musk is a man on a mission. He wants to save humanity from self-destruction and extinction. He wants to reverse global warming. He wants to establish human colonies in Mars.

A HISTORY OF THE DIGITAL AGE - REVIEW OF WALTER ISAACSON'S "THE INNOVATORS"

Walter Isaacson has the rare knack of turning out instant classics. His Einstein: His Life and Universe (2007) was a superlative study of one of the world's renowned scientists while his Steve Jobs (2011) was a memorable portrayal of one of the greatest entrepreneurs of all time. In The Innovators:How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution (2014), Isaacson moves from studying single personalities to a team of pioneers who were instrumental in ushering in the information age.